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RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court abused its discretion in denying a plaintiff’s request for discovery as untimely in a negligence suit against the United States, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, holding that even if a second request served after the lifting of a discovery stay was untimely, a pre-stay request was not.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 20 affirmed a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) to uphold the rejection of one of a technology company’s applications for trademarks associated with a website for medical information, agreeing with the board that the mark was merely descriptive.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge on Feb. 20 denied a motion for judgment as a matter of law filed by an insurer after a South Carolina jury returned a $1.25 million verdict in favor of the insurer in its suit seeking a declaration that it is entitled to recover the full $3.8 million it paid to settle a claim brought by the estate of Alex Murdaugh’s former housekeeper, finding that though the jury found an attorney liable for violations of state law, the firm where he worked provided evidence that he “acted outside of the scope of his employment.”
NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alabama can’t effectively immunize state officials from claims by unemployed workers brought under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983 for the alleged unlawful delay in processing their unemployment benefits by requiring the claimants to first satisfy the administrative-exhaustion requirement in Alabama Code Section 25-4-95, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 21.
ST. LOUIS — Tennessee and 16 other states that sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging the portions of regulations “to carry out” the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that deal with abortion have standing to bring suit under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Feb. 20, reversing a trial court’s ruling.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A long-running intellectual property dispute between Crocs Inc. and a company it accuses of copying its shoe design will not be reconsidered by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which rejected Crocs’ bid to rethink its reversal of a Colorado federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on a false advertising counterclaim in the suit first launched in 2006.
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on Feb. 19 denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against John Paul Mitchell Systems (JPMS), which is one of many defendants in litigation brought by individuals who allege wrongful death and other injuries from endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in hair relaxer products, ruling that JPMS’s argument in favor of dismissal “ignores Plaintiffs’ allegations that EDCs are present in hair relaxer products under the guise of ‘fragrance’ and ‘perfumes,’ but [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulations do not require listing individual fragrance ingredients on labels.”
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing with prejudice a negligence, product liability and federal sex trafficking suit against Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC, the operators of the Grindr app, alleging that they are liable for injuries the plaintiff sustained as an underaged user of the app, finding that the lower court correctly dismissed the claims as barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three executive orders (EOs) issued by President Donald J. Trump on his first two days in office regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and gender identity are ultra vires presidential actions and violate the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), alleges a complaint filed Feb. 19 in a federal court in the District of Columbia by three nonprofits who help with access to employment, housing, education and health care and state that they have received stop-work orders or termination notices.
BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 18 affirmed a lower court ruling granting summary judgment to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) suit alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) regarding purported improper funding of the Chronic Disease Fund (CDF) to subsidize patient copays for a Regeneron macular degeneration drug, finding that in this case of “first impression” regarding a 2010 amendment to the AKS, to show falsity under the amendment, the government must prove “that an illicit kickback was the but-for cause of a submitted claim.”